ONCE THE CORONAVIRUS made its human debut, it wasn't long before scientists found the virus in our poop. Fecal samples from the earliest patients, including the first known case in America, revealed people were shedding the virus not only from their noses and mouths, but also through their excrement. This would turn out to be a pivotal discovery: If the virus was in our waste, it had to be in the sewers, too. And the sewers, scientists hoped, held information about how the virus was spreading, Guy H. Palmer, a professor of pathology and infectious diseases at Washington State University, told me. "They started saying, 'We know this is in the wastewater. Can we measure it?"
The answer was a resounding yes. By sampling sewage, scientists discovered they could estimate Covid trends across communities with stunning accuracy.
"Wastewater surveillance"-the practice of monitoring sewage for pathogens, contaminants, or drugs-has since become a game-changer in the fight against Covid, particularly as at-home testing has eclipsed testing in clinics. As Palmer and his colleagues noted in a recent 151-page report for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, dozens of cities and states across the US have used sewer data to track Covid outbreaks, identify hotspots for vaccination outreach, decide where to allocate treatments like monoclonal antibodies, and serve as an early alarm for individual communities like schools or universities. In other words, the data contained in our poop has likely saved lives.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July/August 2023 من Mother Jones.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July/August 2023 من Mother Jones.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
In the Name of the Mother - How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender
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WHEN IN DROUGHT
This obscure yet adaptable grain could be a healthy staple for a warming planet.
BAD HABITS
A spate of recent horror movies recycle tired tropes about nuns-and reveal society's ongoing discomfort with independent women.
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Imagine obamacare is dead and millions of Americans have lost health coverage.
THE ARCHITECT
TRUMP WANTS TO BE KING. RUSS VOUGHT HAS A PLAN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.
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As an evangelical leader, I enticed lawmakers and federal judges to adopt a conservative Christian agenda. Donald Trump’s rise proved how wrong I was.
GOD'S COUNTRY
These Christian nationalists have a plan to take over Americafrom small towns to the highest court in the land.
